Chapter 10
Brooklyn
T he reason we showed up a little early to the gym was because I was worried about traffic, and had absolutely nothing to do with wanting a moment of just me and Ryan for when I changed into my workout clothes and saw her eyes drag down to my waist. That was completely unrelated and completely unplanned.
I hadn’t been expecting her to get me back quite so easily once she came out of the changing room herself, though, because seeing her in a loose white tank I could see her sports bra through and small shorts, well—she wasn’t bad to look at, herself.
And she read me for filth, because she smiled, leaning against the wall with her bag slung over her shoulder, and she said, “Don’t worry, you have permission to look, too.”
A better woman would have been embarrassed or apologized. I grinned, deliberately not taking my eyes off her. “Thank you,” I said. “That’s very kind of you. I’d be foolish not to take advantage.”
She snorted, rolling her eyes with a playful smile. “Should we go ahead and try climbing while we’re waiting for Allison to drag herself here? I’m sure you wouldn’t want to miss the opportunity to check me out from the other angle, too.”
“I wouldn’t do that,” I said, picking my gym bag up off the floor. “Not without asking permission first. So, permission granted?”
She laughed, ducking her head trying to hide a blush. I couldn’t lie, it was hot how much she was into this. I wasn’t sure if she was into me or if she was just into the idea of flirting with a girl and I happened to be a girl who was easy to get, but either way, I was enjoying the hell out of it. “I mean, after you let me off the hook for brazenly staring half of dinner, it’d hardly be fair to say no.”
“Oh, we’re just about being fair, then,” I said, taking off across the gym with her, the sounds of climbers around the room squeaking and echoing off the tall, smooth walls and ceiling. “And not at all that you like having queer girls looking at you.”
“I’ll leave that to you to guess the answer. Either way, look all you like. I don’t mind.”
I think I knew the answer. And I was happy to take her up on it.
I showed her to the easier walls, clearly marked routes with plenty of big jug holds, solid footholds and a bit of inward slope to take the edge off the climb. Luckily, nobody here right now—a bunch of tryhards in the gym today pumping out on the higher grades, and the way the higher walls blocked this portion of the room, it was a nice bit of privacy for her to mess up in as well. We did some basic warmup stretches, just a little bit knowing that we were taking it easy today, and I was happy to see some confidence and focus coming into her eyes as she got into her warmup and, I could tell, the worries of the day left her behind.
“Won’t start you out with baby’s-first-boulder type climbs,” I said, showing her the wall once the warmup was done, “because you’ve watched some videos, you’re clearly in some pretty okay shape even if you haven’t climbed before, and because I promised I wouldn’t go easy on you. Give it a go yourself once and let me see what you’ve picked up from YouTube Academy. Try to skip the white holds if you can, our route setters put those in as backups in case you just can’t do a certain part of a climb or if you want to practice a higher part of a route. Skip the blue ones if you want to push yourself.”
She dusted her hands with the chalk, sizing up the wall, and she spoke absently as she scanned the routes. Seemed to know what to look for, too. “Well, I’ve heard girls love a girl who does rock climbing, so, gotta get to it,” she said, and she jumped up to grab one of the green holds a bit up from the ground, planting her feet on a couple of solid holds and steadying herself there, pulling her body close to the wall.
“Okay, now you’re just showing off,” I laughed, leaning against the base of the wall, looking up at her. At the way her muscles flexed in her legs as she positioned them, and, well—at her ass. Hey, she’d told me I could look. Wasn’t a climber, but she definitely did some lower-body routines.
“Sure am,” she said idly, her gaze solidly fixed on what she’d pegged as her next move, skipping not only the easier blue hold but also the smaller green hold closer by. “Trying to get you to compliment me.”
“Your look of intense concentration is cute.”
“I meant compliment my abilities, but I’m not going to pretend I’m not happy about that one too,” she laughed, before she tensed up the muscles in her legs, and she moved—a quick dyno, jumping to the next hold, securing herself on a nice chunky foothold below and stabilizing her posture, pressing herself back up against the wall.
“Dyno girl,” I said, the impressed tone in my voice saying all the compliments for me. “You typically do cardio, huh?”
“Spin classes, running a couple times a week, and my personal favorite, jump rope. Mom told me not to jump on the bed when I was little, so I had to find an acceptable outlet.”
“Ah, same. Got told off a lot for climbing furniture and counters as a kid. I think I found my acceptable outlet. I think your outlet’s turned out quite acceptable, too,” I said, letting my gaze drift back to where her ass was just about level with my eyesight. Not the worst place for it.
Without looking back down at me, she said, “You’re staring at my butt, aren’t you?”
“I am, but don’t worry, I asked permission.”
She laughed, and she made a move on up to the next hold, taking this one more carefully, cautiously. We made small talk as she pushed herself up higher, and she was damn good for a beginner, working her way up and already close to the top of the climb when I heard footsteps coming from behind me, and I looked back at where Allison looked appalled, wearing her orange track suit she always wore for climbing—well, always was a stretch for the three times I’d gotten her here.
“Jesus Christ,” she said, “she just started and she’s already so good that I hate her.”
“Hi, Allison,” Ryan called down from near the top of the wall, a little short on breath. “Love you too.”
“I hate you, asshole,” Allison laughed. “Fall off.”
“I think I won’t.”
“Nice to see you,” I said. “Good day at work?”
Allison laughed, gesturing up towards Ryan. “Holy hell, though, how long have you been here? It takes me like an hour to get anywhere.”
“Just a bit,” I answered for her. “She clapped her hands with chalk and leapt up onto the wall and started jumping around like she was born to do it.”
“I literally hate you both,” Allison laughed, slinging her bag on the floor and dropping to do her warmup stretches, which she was absolutely rushing through. I sat with her, and once it was the two of us close together, Allison dropped her voice and said, “So everything’s okay now with her?”
“Her family are all douchebags, but aside from that—she’s doing well, actually. Not only that,” I said, raising my voice enough for Ryan to hear again, “but she’s agreed to help me with your mission.”
Allison went scarlet, hugging herself. “What? Oh my god, are you going around talking to people about that?”
“God dammit,” Ryan gasped, and I saw her pump out—one arm, holding fast onto a red hold she’d clearly underestimated, quivered despite her visible attempts to hold it still, and she dropped, pushing off the wall and landing a little clumsily but with the general right technique on the mat. She shook out her arms, turning back to me and Allison with an exhilarated smile on her face, a little flushed from the exercise but clearly on the high. “Yeah, Brooklyn told me all about how you want to go around having tons of hookups with total strangers—”
“Fuck off,” Allison laughed, coming out of a stretch and standing up. “I said I’d be curious to try it literally one time.”
Ryan grinned, tugging back a strand of hair that had escaped from her ponytail, tucking it behind her ear. “Me too,” she said, and Allison stopped.
“What, you want to hook up with a girl, too?”
“While we’re laying it all out in the open, sure,” Ryan said, trying to put on a casual smile but I saw her not quite able to meet either of our gazes. “Just while I’m here. I asked Brooklyn if she could help me pull off the same thing. So we’re in the same boat.”
Allison scrunched up her face. “So you finally admit to being gay.”
“No, fully heterosexual,” Ryan deadpanned. “Just like every woman who wants to hook up with another woman.”
“There’s one right there,” Allison said, gesturing to me. “Brooklyn would happily—”
“Allison,” I said, “are you planning on climbing today, or just standing there talking about how desirable I am?”
“Ew,” she laughed. “I don’t know which sounds worse. Okay, I’ll climb literally once so you can get off my back.”
Allison wasn’t quite as bad as she made herself out to be—not as good as Ryan was, and she cursed with every move she made, as Ryan sidled up next to me with a glowing smile on her face.
“So, how are we supposed to get her to hook up with a girl? I feel like she’s going to be picky as hell.”
“She’s not,” I laughed. “She acts like she is! But then as soon as there’s a girl paying attention to her, she’s all starstruck… just a little bratty. There’s plenty of people into that.”
She made a face at me. “Are you one of them?”
I snorted. “Even if Allison were a good… how much older would she have to be… even if Allison were old enough to drink, that girl would not be close to my type.”
“And what is your type?” she said, and I definitely did not just imagine the teasing, playful tone there in her voice. I smiled at her.
“You would like to know, wouldn’t you?”
She didn’t miss a beat. “Mm-hm. That’s why I asked. Now answer, or I’ll revoke permission to stare at my ass, and then what will you do while I’m climbing?”
This girl really did like to play with fire. I liked a little heat, though. “Well, we wouldn’t want that,” I said. “Dunno. I’ve actually got pretty broad interests. I generally like a person who’s pretty cool and put together… or at least who comes across as put together. I don’t think anyone in this world is really put together.”
“Fair enough…” she said, not looking at me, distracting herself watching Allison climb the wall.
“And yours?” I laughed, nudging her side. She blushed a little, but she didn’t back down.
“That’s what I’m hoping to find out.”
“You don’t know? No… celebrity crushes? Fictional characters who get you hot under the collar?”
She laughed, hanging her head. “I think I was so focused on trying to just maintain attraction for Shane that I gaslit myself into believing a lot of things I felt like I needed to… now I don’t know what I actually feel. And I’d like to find out.”
“Hm…” I took the weight of it in, thinking it over, before I decided to trample all over the serious statement. “But you definitely like a girl with abs. Who cooks without a shirt on.”
“Oh, you’d like me to be, wouldn’t you?” she said, meeting my gaze with a challenging gleam in her eyes.
She was seriously going to have no issues getting a hookup. I’d have ditched Allison here to take her back to my place right now, if she’d asked. Which was a weird thing to think about a friend who was kind of in my care for the time being, but dammit, she was my friend who was in my care and was hot as hell.
“The more people into me, the better,” I said, opting for a non-answer. “It’s good for my ego. You and I can go to Casablanca after this. It’s a nightclub… it’s not a gay club or anything, but it’s got an alternative section that’s, ostensibly, just for people who don’t fit the mold too cleanly. But in practice, it’s both that and about two-thirds queer people, and the girls in the last third are cool enough not to get upset if a girl hits on them.”
“That’s where you like to pick up your girls?” she said lightly, and I shrugged.
“Couple places I like to go, but that one’s nice. I’m friends with the staff there, too, so even if I don’t leave with someone, I generally get to have a nice evening chatting to someone there. And as for you—you’re hot, so I think it’ll take you about five minutes to find a girl who’s interested in you, if you go looking.”
“Psh…” She looked away. “I think you might just be projecting.”
I laughed. “Trust me, Ryan. I’m not worried about whether you can find a girl. I’m worried about how we’ll find Allison a girl who doesn’t scare her away.”
She inspected her fingernails idly. “You’re making a lot of promises of me. What are you going to say if I don’t find a girl tonight?”
“Then I guess I owe you another pizza.” I winked, and she smiled, rolling her eyes. As if I couldn’t see the blush creeping over her cheeks.
“Are you going to climb,” Allison called from the wall, a grand three holds up, at maximum, “or was this just a sick social experiment to watch me embarrass myself?”
Ryan glanced at me with a glimmer in her eye. “She’s feisty when she’s climbing, huh?”
“When she’s doing any physical activity. Not swimming, though. Girl’s a fish.”
She laughed, stepping towards the wall. “Guess Allison and I will have to drag you swimming with us this week, too. I love the water. Now, do me a favor and correct my form? I’m sure you might have noticed one or two areas for improvement in between all the staring.”
Ah, what the hell, she started it. I looked at her ass. “Don’t see any area for improvement, honestly.”
“Stop it,” she laughed, with that tone that said she didn’t want me to stop at all, the liar. “You’re very sweet. Now—the climbing?”
“Ah, yes. Forgot about that.”
I showed her a couple tips on how to use her legs better to take some of the pressure off her arms, keep her less likely to pump out this time, and I stood under both of them on the wall and commented on how they both needed some finger strength workouts. Allison didn’t appreciate the joke. She’d appreciate it better once she was back on solid ground.
Still, both of them managed to make it up to the top of the climb, Ryan taking the harder route—I was a sucker for an overachiever—and I high-fived her when she came back down, loving the sparkle in her eyes of completing her first climb. Allison took her sweet time, still warming up a little on the wall, and looked more like she was considering strangling me for bringing her here when she came back down, but she at least took Ryan’s compliment on making it to the top, commiserating on the first climbs. The two of them sat resting side-by-side and chatting as I tackled one of the harder routes—my exercise, and my stress relief, my happy place, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to show off just a little bit in front of Ryan.
And from the way she looked at me when I was pretty sure she didn’t know I was looking, I think it was working.
Ryan went back to the wall to try another route on the climb she just did once I got down from the wall, and Allison, a little more warmed up now and a little more enthusiastic now that she’d gotten over the starting-off hurdle, tackled her next climb with a bit more energy while I kept going on another, and it was when I flubbed a dyno trying a new route and dropped off the wall that Anthony found me, one of my climber buddies and, blessedly, one of the few who knew how to shower regularly. Still kinda stank, but more in the inevitable way that anyone would after climbing for a few hours—guy loved his endurance sessions, and he had a mountain-man build to show for it.
“How’s it going, BB,” he said, coming over to me with his gigantic water flask in hand. “You brought the little feisty demon child in again.”
“Believe it or not, Allison’s actually pretty mild outside of the gym.”
“Yeah, I’ll believe it when I see it. Who’s the other girl? You seem a little more serious with her than the usual, huh?”
“Ryan’s just a friend,” I said. He raised his eyebrows, quirking a smirk.
“Yeah, sure. You were checking out her ass the entire time.”
I looked away. “She gave me permission to.”
“See, that’s sounding less and less like just a friend. She’s cute. Ryan, huh? How long’s she in town?”
“Through the weekend. Came here with her family, but they all suck shit, so we’re hanging. You should say hi, but only if you’re not going to be a creep about it.”
“Dude, I’m not the one staring at her ass.” But he put the water away, and he joined us for our climbs, stopping to chat with Allison and Ryan in between climbs. Ryan got on well with him, because—obviously. That girl could talk to a stone wall and make it interesting.
We were quick enough that Anthony was still going when we packed up, and he caught us on the way out.
“Bailing already?” he said, and Allison decided to throw stones in a glass house, because she jabbed a thumb at Ryan.
“Yeah, this one wants to hit the club and pick up girls.”
Ryan smiled serenely. “And Brooklyn asked my help in helping Allison pick up a girl, too, when Allison went around begging her like please I’ll never get a girl without your help —”
“I don’t know why I go anywhere with you two,” Allison huffed, arms folded as she looked away. Anthony just smiled half-confusedly as he looked between us all.
“Well, I guess… enjoy the girls, girls. It was nice meeting you, Ryan. Brooklyn… have fun,” he said, with that loaded, cautious way that implied some things that he did not need to go around implying. I rose above it with the patience of a saint.
“See you, Anthony. Remember to eat and sleep and talk to your family.”
“Eh. I got walls and stuff.”
“Healthy attitude,” Allison said under her breath, and Anthony pretended he didn’t hear.
When we got out into the warm nighttime air, heavy with humidity, Allison rolled her eyes at me and Ryan both stopping by my car.
“Oh, you got Brooklyn chauffeuring you and everything,” she said. I cut in.
“I’d drive you too if you didn’t spill lemonade in my car.”
“You still drive Laura around even though she literally threw up in your car twice. You just wanna pick on me.”
I laughed. “Okay, yeah, I do. For real, though, Ryan was just at my place before this, so it made sense. Do you want me to drive you home so you can feel special?”
“Nah. You two get your special time together,” Allison said, raising her hand in a wave. “Enjoy your clubbing, weirdos. Text me the updates on how it goes.”
Ryan nudged my side once Allison had made it across the lot back to her car. “I think she’s jealous of me getting time with you,” she said. “She really does love you.”
“Who doesn’t love me?”
She gave me a dry smile. “My aunt, from the sounds of things.”
“I’m… devastated. Shall we go get you a hot hookup for the night to help us all move on?”
She laughed, suddenly turning shy again in a blink, ducking her head as a soft flush spilled over her cheeks. “Yeah, why not? Um… lead the way.”
Ugh, Allison was right. Anthony too. I was more into this girl than I was with the girls I hooked up with. I was going to get jealous watching her have a fling with someone.
Of course, guess I could have offered myself for the role. But… I wasn’t about to be creepy and predatorial like that.
I was going to check out her ass, though. But only with permission.